We arrived in Corleone, exited the bus and started walking through the city. Here is a photo of one of the streets we were walking up. Corleone is in hilly country as you can tell from the photo.
To learn about the Mafia we visited the International Center of Documentation on the Mafia and Anti-Mafia Movement (CIDMA). This is an organization that was founded in 2000 to provide information on the Mafia and to promote the anti Mafia movement. For years, local Sicilians lived by a code of silence with regards to the Mafia and it was impossible for the police or prosecutors to make any progress against them. For years the local Sicilians felt since it was Mafia killing Mafia it was none of their business. However, in the 1980s the Mafia got very violent and started killing innocent civilians and the people got fed up and started aiding the police. Also in the 1980s, was the bombings that killed magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. One law that had a great effect was the equivalent to our RICO Act, all they had to do was prove someone was a member of the Mafia and they could be convicted and sent to jail. The big break came when one of the Mafia members who was arrested decided to tell all in return for protection. This resulted in what became know as the Maxi Trial with 475 members of the Mafia on trial and almost all of them were convicted. The most notable recent event in Corleone was the arrest in 2006 of Bernardo Provenzano, "Boss of Bosses", who had been in hiding for more than 40 years. This gave rise to much celebration. "Liberation Day" on April 11 (the date of Provenzano's capture) and naming a street "11 Aprile" shows just how much the arrest has affected Corleone. Gaetano Riina, Corleone's recent mob boss, was arrested on July 1, 2011. Here is a photo of Walter who was our CIDMA guide.
And this room of files are the documentation of the Maxi Trial.
They also had a lot of photos documenting the Mafia. Here is one of an old time Mafia boss.
And here are a couple of photos of Mafia hits that finally got the public involved.
In this last photo, the actual killing took place at the top of the alley but the body was moved and posed to send a specific message. Sicily is still suffering from the presence of the Mafia. Anyone trying to do business in Sicily has to pay protection money to the local Mafia family, it's typically 10% of revenue. As a result a lot of businesses will not come to Sicily and the local economy and people suffer. The atmosphere in Sicily as regards the Mafia is changing. According to our guide, Walter, the younger generation no longer follows the code of silence that had allowed the Mafia to flourish and some businesses are taking pledges of no payments to the Mafia. Only time will tell how well this works.
On the way out of town came across some wall art.
And here is an interesting farm truck heading down the streets of the city.
Our next stop was the Principe di Corleone winery just outside of Corleone. We had a tour of the facility, then had a wine tasting and lunch. But first here is another scenery shot.
Here we are in the room of the winery where red wine is being aged in oak barrels.
And here we are with the fermentation tanks for white wine.
After leaving the winery took this photo of sheep grazing on the grain stubble in a field. What happens is that after the grain, such as wheat is harvested the farmers allow the local shepherds to graze their flocks on the stubble.
We then arrived at our hotel for the night, the Verdura Golf & Spa Resort just outside the city of Sciacca on Sicily's south coast. This was a real cultural shock. We went from the baroque Grand Hotel Wagner in Palermo to the ultamodern Verdura, from ornate carpeting to concrete floors, from tiny cramped bathrooms to a bathroom with a walk in shower. Here is a photo of the out building we were in.
Here is the beach. No white sand, Sicilian beaches are rocky but it is the Mediterranean which makes up for a lot.
Here is the main building
And here is the pool.
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